A review by _bailee_
Locke & Key by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodríguez

5.0

I don't have much to say about this audiobook other than it's amazing! It's a great story for it to have a fuller production of. And what an experience it is! I have a feeling I would have been much more creeped out had I not been listening along with reading the books, so I'm curious how it would be just the audiobook. I'm quite sure I wouldn't have enjoyed or liked it as much, though, had I only been reading the physical books. Although, technically I was reading the issues online because I don't own the books physically, yet. It would have been interesting to have my imagination take me places through listening to the audio production, but I wanted to listen along with the comics so that's what I did. This is more of a review of the audiobook and less has to do with the story. And, again, I don't have much else to say other than how well-produced it is. It creates an atmosphere and with the sound effects and dialogue it's almost as if you're really following the Locke family. All the actors did a great job, I'd especially say the person who plays Nina Locke because she had to slur her lines at times, but I was still able to understand her. Also, I'm so biased on this but, Tatiana Maslany worked so well for the voice of Echo/female Dodge. (I really like her and the TV show Orphan Black, which is why I say I'm biased towards her since she plays half the characters in that series and she was one of the two voices I was familiar with going into the audiobook. I do have to say Tyler's and Lucas/Dodge/Zach's voices both sounded really familiar, though.) The shadows' voices were super creepy and unsettling. And I liked that the memories/thoughts from inside the characters' heads had voices, too. I would definitely recommend this audiobook to others, so long as they are okay with stories on the violent and creepy side. There's also a lot that is dealt with and touched on in terms of political and social issues, as well as illnesses. Race and gay rights issues come up, one character is mentally handicapped, one character is an alcoholic; there are fights, murder, rape. Even if some of it is more implicit and only slightly expressed in the audio, it may be important for someone to know before going into it- whether it be this audiobook or the physical books.
The overall complete Locke & Key books/story would probably be more of a 4/5 star rating, but the audiobook deserves a 5/5 stars for sure!